Nearly There

[Davefettback]

This time in 2016 I purchased a 1972 Plus 2 from California on an Ebay auction, while at a trackday. The plan was to do a full rebuild and have it on the road for the following summer. I believe I was delusional. When the car arrived, my grandson and I reduced it to a pile of pieces over the weekend. Engine out to the builder, body to the shop, chassis to shop, etc. Well, the engine was a year to get back, the body was 2 years and Interior was another year. In all I didn’t get it on the road until summer 2023. Once all together the car is really something. Every nut and bolt has been touched. Engine is a 1950cc stroker 200+HP, heavy duty clutch, concentric throw-out bearing, rebuilt 4 speed transmission with new syncros and seals, 3.5 gears in the rear end with Quaife ATB diff and billet output and hub shafts with CV joint axles. Alloy radiator, swirl pot, oil cooler and custom fuel cell. Miata headlight lifts, lithium battery, custom hand brake. Adjustable suspension arms with heim joints and poly bushings. Fast road/track TTR springs and adjustable shocks front and rear with race rated anti roll bar. 14” minilites with 195 Falken Azenis tires. Interior is custom leather with re-veneered original dash, custom build chrome-moly roll bar. The car when purchased had all original trim in place, so everything stainless got repolished and everything chrome got replated, including all latches and hood props which weren’t originally.
Corner balanced and weight is under 800kg
Unfortunately the engine suffered gas washing during commissioning and this resulted in blow by and cylinder glazing issues. Drove it last season to see if we could work it through the issues, however I pulled it and returned it to the builder to hone and put things right. More bad news during the dyno runs it was discovered the block had a casting issue and leaked water into the crankcase. There are blocks available so we’re trying to source an alloy block which in turn will increase size to 2.2 Litre and likely 230ish HP. This will mean new Quaife gears for the transmission as well. Good thing I love this stuff.
This site has been a great resource and help in doing this build. Id like to thank everyone that posts on this forum, for sharing.
You’ve probably figured out that this Plus 2 is modern car quick and a real hoot to drive. It has a very tight modern feel to it. Here’s a few pictures. Please enjoy. Prize for anyone that can guess the source of the sunvisors.

[h20hamelan]

Very, very impressive Dave!

[wsmempson]

Are the sunvisors rosen from a light aircraft?

[Bill]

Damn fine job Dave.

Where did you source the windshield shades?
I like the rear window fit - I ended making my own rear window for my Sprint coupe.

Bill

[stugilmour]

Holy Doodle Dave. What a great build. Can’t wait to see your car in person.

[rgh0]

At 1950cc I presume you had it bored to 85mm. I find its common for the bore to split at that size as you will be getting very very thin in places. The biggest bore casting O/D I have seen in a bore in 92mm and it rare for them to be even all around and even cylinder to cylinder and the bore perfectly centred so easy to end up with thin spots leading to cracking or porosity.

An alloy block fixes all those problems

cheers
Rohan

[seniorchristo]

very nice!

[Davefettback]

Visors are from a 1967 Renault Caravelle and sourced as new from a vendor in France. Had a Caravelle in high school and went searching on the internet.